Spinal cord injured patients gain great benefit from riding on FES enabled ergometers. However, when a patient's limbs are set in motion and/or when stimulation is applied at the start of a session many patients suffer from muscle spasms. This spasm often prevents the patients from riding for several minutes until the spasms have subsided. This can cause time to be lost by both the patient and therapist/care-giver and results in reducing the benefits that the patient receives from the FES ergometer.
Current techniques to minimize spasm include:
1. Stretching the patient's legs prior to riding. The problem with this approach is that it is labor intensive and does not always achieve the desired results.
2. Having the therapist observe the patient as stimulation is being applied and manually prevent the stimulation from increasing when the patient is showing early signs of spasm. The problem with this approach is that it requires a well-trained therapist to be present when the patient cycles. This is not always practical.
3. Setting the FES ergometer to increase the stimulation levels on the subject very slowly so that the patient's muscles accommodate the stimulation. The problem with this solution is that a therapist needs to be trained to know how to set-up the FES ergometer for a patient known to have spasms. Another problem is that it takes longer for the patient to receive the maximum benefit of FES cycling because the stimulation ramps up slowly. The patient may only occasionally suffer from spasm in which case it would be better to ramp up stimulation more quickly when the patient is not suffering from spasm.